If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

If anyone has ordered this "kit" from Kershaw, please let me know how the installation went. I have never in my life had this much of a headache with parts I bought for the REAL cars I have modified. Hopefully I will have some time to head to the local hobby shop this week to pickup the correct nuts to mount the Kershaw mount to the Kershaw chassis brace because the ones I was supplied the second time around do not fit the mount.

I have been telling myself that I wasn't going to rant in this thread about why it has taken so long for so little progress, but I'm upset and I have grounds to be upset. In a nutshell, this is what has taken so long: I have very little time to work on the car so when I can spare an hour I pull the car out on my kitchen table and start working. This is what I have run into:

1. The RPM sensor doesn't fit in the mount with the parts I was given - can't work on the car anymore
2. I realized that the batteries I bought from Kershaw don't fit in the tall Traxxas battery clips so Kershaw sends me velcro straps
3. Sent the mount and sensor to Kershaw and he installed it backwards - can't work on the car anymore
4. Kershaw sends the correct parts. It was a pain in the butt to get the sensor to stay in place but I finally got it installed. Tried to install the mount but Kershaw didn't send all of my screws and nuts back - can't work on the car anymore
5. Kershaws sends a bag of screws and nuts. I don't think to check to make sure they all fit when I receive them. Over a month later (tonight) I try to take some time to install the mount again. The nuts are the wrong size and it's 1 AM - can't work on the car anymore.

Between those steps, there are multiple e-mails traded back and forth with Kershaw and a lot of times passes that I am too busy with work and life to sit down and try to get this freakin car together. Plus, the honest truth is that I am too torqued off with all that I have dealt with to even want to sit down and look at an $1800 R/C car that hasn't ran since March.

I hope the rest of you that buy the setup get the correct parts from him the first time. He's a cool guy, and I even met him in person, but he needs to QA the parts he sends out in the future.

I finally had some time to work on the car again. Finally installed the mount with the locknuts I bought at my LHS. I wanted to put the smaller pinion gear that I bought from Kershaw on the car, but I wasn't given the screw for the smaller pinion - the hole that was drilled in it is larger than the hole that was drilled in the larger pinion I bought from Kershaw. Since Kershaw gave me a screw for the larger pinion I decided to install that so I can finally move forward with the build.

Next I had to uninstall the temperature sensor from my other XO-1. After I did that I looked at the RX-461 receiver and remembered that I needed to figure out how to connect the Traxxas sensors to it. I created the following thread to see what others have done: http://traxxas.com/forums/showthread...or-Other-Radio

While searching for solutions, I decided to just go ahead and just put everything together and worry about telemetry stuff after I got the car back on the road. I decided to start charging the Kershaw batteries for the first time since I thought I would have the car on the road today. The first one finished charging so I decided to put the second one on the charger and when I tried to connect it I noticed that something was wrong with the connector on the battery:

I really thought today would be the day the car would see the sun. I'll e-mail Kershaw and in the meantime I will figure out what to do about the sensors.

Mate, good to see some progress on this build. Here's my 2cents. I hate the traxxas connectors and always prefer to run castle 6.5mm bullets. But if you are having trouble and dont want to send them back Dan simply grab an allen driver and push the tab out of the connector and re-solder the tab. It has worked really well for me in the past. Or you could get another set of traxxas connectors and solder them on. I understand that it is the principal of it, but if you want to get up and running quicker fixing it yourself might be faster and easier.

Yes you can shorten/lengthen servo cables. I use PROTEK Futaba style connectors from amians and have a pair of crimping pliers for crimping the little sockets to the wire.

that kind of stuff will happen when trying to fit 10 or 8 guage wire into those connectors .. i took mine to my lhs after i couldnt even get the pin into the connector .. usually my lhs charges to solder but they had such a hassle puttin them in they didnt even charge me just said if they break or come apart just bring them back .. sometimes love my LHS

Man one thing after another !!! I don't think he will see any business from me !!! YUCK !!!

I think this thread is doing a bit of injustice to Kershaw so I'm going to chime in with my experience. I spoke to bringit a few weeks ago about his Kershaw set-up and he was nice enough to go over some of the problems that he ran into since I was looking into doing this set-up as well. I spoke to Kershaw about these issues and I was told that the XO1 set-up was pretty much just plug and play . Kershaw was 100% right and it looks like bringit's experience may have been a combination of bad luck, lack of time, and lack of access to proper tools so that he could 'fix' everything himself without having to send things off to have installed/fixed. I will preface everything by stating that I come from a mechanical engineering background and also own a high performance race/dyno shop so I have access to pretty much any tool required at my shop. I work on race cars on a daily basis so I'm used to things never going as planned. I also did this installation on a brand new XO1... I know nothing ever goes as planned and I did not want to mess with anything on my current XO1 since I have it doing consistent 100-108mph passes on 6s (all gps/radar gun verified speeds).

While bringit may have ran into issues over the past several months, I ran into zero issues and had this installation done by working on it 2 nights after work. This includes stripping the entire car apart, fixing the slop issues, changing out diff/susp fluids, suspension components, modifying the battery trays for my 8s lipo set-up, installing the entire conversion kit, and pretty much everything else that I have done on my other XO1 in order for it to track straight as an arrow. Kershaw's design works perfectly fine with the telemetry and the ONLY modification I had to do with his kit was widen 2 holes on the main brace for the motor mount. Even if Kershaw did forget to supply any bolts/etc you could simply pick them up at any LHS or Home Depot/Ace/Lowe's.

I will say that for the less mechanically inclined that Kershaw may want to provide instructions for the installation. I can see how some parts of the installation could be a bit difficult for some people. As far as the lipo's are concerned, swing by Radio Shack and pick up a temperature controlled soldering iron, desoldering iron, wire stripper, and solder. Soldering terminals are super easy with the right equipment. Just make sure you solder 1 wire at a time... you don't want the Positive and Negative wire touching. I have also seen some of the TRX connectors fail immediately when they were brand new out of the bag. Meaning, the terminals do not stay in place properly in the plastic housing and will pull out. That is why I order these connectors 25+ at a time. In this hobby you pretty much gotta hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

So everyone here has yet to hear a review on this set-up. Here's my review... kind of.

Just like with the "regular cars" that I work on, I can also always count on something to go wrong with the RC cars that I mess around with as well. For example, I wanted to throw everything together to get it up and running ASAP. But, I took my sweet time with the installation instead. I used wire sheith and heat shrink on of my ESC wiring. I routed all ESC wires under the XL2 mounting tray, and up the center as Traxxas did with all original wiring to make the installation clean. While I was doing this I thought to myself "I hope nothing messes up because if I have to remove the ESC I'll have to take the entire car apart to remove it." With this said, I left my receiver cover off so that I could properly bind and program the ESC while I was out doing some test runs on the new set-up. Keep in mind, I started my testing off with 6s. On the road that I used for testing, I have successfully clocked 95-99mph on the Traxxas 25c/5000's depending on battery voltage on my original 6s XO1. This road is short and the one that I use for my 100-108mph passes was not available to use. I used the same lipo's and test area so that I could compare Car 1 to Car 2. Day 1's goal was to have the car track straight and get all of the 'kinks' worked out.

It took me 3 passes to get used to the new set-up and get the gyro tracking straight as an arrow. At the end of my 3rd test run the car shut off. I went over to the car and it was completely dead. The run was kind of a lousy run in my opinion, but it did yield 91mph per my GPS on 6s lipo's that were down to 22.9v. So why did my car die? The caps on the XL2 melted/broke off. Yep, I was right... I should have never tucked all of the ESC wiring because I had to tear apart the entire car to remove the ESC (which only takes about 20 minutes).

Now, here is why I did not like seeing Kershaw's name getting so much negativity on this thread.

1) I had zero problems with his kit. My 'set-up' is not the traditional one as I did do a few tweaks here and there with some parts compared to 'bringit'... but for all intents and purposes this kit is great. It is pretty much plug and play... but keep in mind you're always going to run into "something small."

2) Kershaw has EXCELLENT customer support. If you have any questions, you'll get an answer within 1-2hrs (if not immediately depending on time of day) typically via email.

3) I contacted Kershaw about the ESC. He has seen this happen before and instead of having to wait 3 weeks for Castle to repair my ESC, he is sending me a brand new one immediately at no additional cost. All I had to do was return the original ESC.

Kershaw gets two thumbs up in my opinion. If any of you guys have issues or questions feel free to message me and I'll do my best to walk you through the installation if Kershaw cannot. bringit, feel free to message me if you have any questions about finishing your set-up. If it wasn't for this thread I would have never known about Kershaw or his kit.

I would also like to give a thumbs up to High Gear RC (ponie1992/Jeremy) for his XL2 mounting kit. The kit comes with instructions and it is very simple to install. It is a very nicely designed piece. I was thinking of making the mount... but for $30 bucks shipped you can't beat it. The ONLY thing I may modify on his kit is to move the ESC's mounting location a little closer to the center of the car. This would only be to prevent the ESC from getting damaged if the car were to hit a curb sideways at a very high speed. I may fabricate an aluminum brace around the ESC for additional protection.

In my opinion, this is a very stout set-up. As with everything new, there is always a learning curve. I do not expect to go out and immediately clock 120+mph. It's going to take a while but I'm very confident my set-up will do an excess of 125mph eventually. I've got a pretty busy schedule at the moment so I'll do the best I can to update everyone with my results.

Test Fit:

Pre-Test run (wiring all exposed so that I could calibrate everything while doing initial testing):

I opted to widen 2 brace mounting holes out due to the fact that my set-up is not identical to bringit's. If you don't know how to use a drill then you don't have any business doing an installation like this in the first place.

That's why I stated "pretty much just plug and play." As far as running into 'something small' that's how it is working on any RC car... stock or not

To Anthony V - Wow you are long winded, but very detail in your explanation. I have looked at your other posts and you seem to have a knack for R&D. Thank you for all the great info and i hope you hit the 120mph mark! Let us all know when you do. Form what I can see, it does look like a simple "plug-n-play". I just hope that people realize that when removing most factory components and installing a new one, modification is sometimes required.

Thx for your write up Anthony I've talked with you alot about Kershaw and you've helped me alot Dan does a great job with the kit I love mine, I'm going to test it today and see what kind of runs I can get thanks again anthony

Thx for your write up Anthony I've talked with you alot about Kershaw and you've helped me alot Dan does a great job with the kit I love mine, I'm going to test it today and see what kind of runs I can get thanks again anthony

What is it with this car that brings out the Engineers? Why don't you fix that broken cap Mr. Wizard? 100-108 is an eight mph difference, I don't call that consistant. Is this 108 on uncut video or should I even question an Engineer?

Your kit is older so Kershaw has most the installation hardware figured out now(thanks to Bringit). As far as the kit actually working as intended, I doubt Dan even knows. Sounds like your not the first to melt a cap off one though.

What is it with this car that brings out the Engineers? Why don't you fix that broken cap Mr. Wizard? 100-108 is an eight mph difference, I don't call that consistant. Is this 108 on uncut video or should I even question an Engineer?

Your kit is older so Kershaw has most the installation hardware figured out now(thanks to Bringit). As far as the kit actually working as intended, I doubt Dan even knows. Sounds like your not the first to melt a cap off one though.

Good question Bill Nye... I asked Kershaw about this and I believe there may be another underlying problem with the ESC other than the caps simply becoming unsoldered. This is why he recommended it be sent back to Castle Creations for further inspection. I think you'll be happy to know that I have replacement caps available for some of my other RC set-ups. I know you've got quite the keen eye Mr Nye... so you'll see the cap in the picture below is actually not a low ESR cap. But rest assured that it works perfectly fine and will be replaced by a low ESR when it arrives later this week. I figured you would need to se proof that I can actually install a cap... so here you go:

Originally Posted by BL-Bob

100-108 is an eight mph difference, I don't call that consistant. Is this 108 on uncut video or should I even question an Engineer?

I thought my 5 page essay was far enough in depth for most... but I forgot about you Bill Nye. Another good question. I should have stated that I have an array of different lipo's that are used as well as Stock XO1 slicks and foams that I use for high speed runs. Just a little FYI, the slicks have a larger O.D. than the foams do. Depending on which combo is uses plays a role in the 'consistent' speeds that I am claiming. 6s lipo's that I have are as follows: Traxxas 25c 5000mah, ******** 65C/130C 5000mah, MaxAmps 100C 6000mah, and Thunder Power 65C/130C 5000mah. I'll let you do the math on which tire/lipo set-up results in a higher top end speed. I honestly think I could see speeds of 110-112 on my old 6s set-up... but I got tired of wasting my time to see 2mph gains here and there.

I also want to apologize profusely for not having my 100-108mph runs on video specifically for you. If you remember a few months ago, I would post up video's pretty much every week. I had some issues hitting 100mph originally... so here's a video of back when I couldn't clock 100mph. This one is 98mph. It just became somewhat of an inconvenience having to get together a group of people to go out in order to film and clock the car with a radar gun every time I wanted to go run. But rest assured that I'll have a video of the Kershaw set-up. It may be a few weeks so please don't hold your breath.

The kit is still not plug and play. It's plug drill flip your rear arms move your shocks and play for three runs (and that's only if your a mechanically inclined Engineer)

Originally Posted by AnthonyV

What is it with this forum that brings out the trolls?Trolls gotta troll....
Good question Bill Nye... I asked Kershaw about this and I believe there may be another underlying problem with the ESC other than the caps simply becoming unsoldered. This is why he recommended it be sent back to Castle Creations for further inspection. I think you'll be happy to know that I have replacement caps available for some of my other RC set-ups. I know you've got quite the keen eye Mr Nye... so you'll see the cap in the picture below is actually not a low ESR cap. But rest assured that it works perfectly fine and will be replaced by a low ESR when it arrives later this week. I figured you would need to se proof that I can actually install a cap... so here you go:

I thought my 5 page essay was far enough in depth for most... but I forgot about you Bill Nye. Another good question. I should have stated that I have an array of different lipo's that are used as well as Stock XO1 slicks and foams that I use for high speed runs. Just a little FYI, the slicks have a larger O.D. than the foams do. Depending on which combo is uses plays a role in the 'consistent' speeds that I am claiming. 6s lipo's that I have are as follows: Traxxas 25c 5000mah, ******** 65C/130C 5000mah, MaxAmps 100C 6000mah, and Thunder Power 65C/130C 5000mah. I'll let you do the math on which tire/lipo set-up results in a higher top end speed. I honestly think I could see speeds of 110-112 on my old 6s set-up... but I got tired of wasting my time to see 2mph gains here and there.

I also want to apologize profusely for not having my 100-108mph runs on video specifically for you. If you remember a few months ago, I would post up video's pretty much every week. I had some issues hitting 100mph originally... so here's a video of back when I couldn't clock 100mph. This one is 98mph. It just became somewhat of an inconvenience having to get together a group of people to go out in order to film and clock the car with a radar gun every time I wanted to go run. But rest assured that I'll have a video of the Kershaw set-up. It may be a few weeks so please don't hold your breath.

I'll take Bill Nye the science guy over Mr. Wizard. Okay, you made it sound like a 8% difference in speed is considered consistent. 108 is a big number(for a XO-1) to go throwing around without backing it up. (Lo and behold I just did 109 last night) No it's not easy filming, but we've seen how easy it is to chop a photo.
The esc problem maybe the 6s voltage being used instead of the full 8s voltage. Less volts(25<35) at the same wattage will result in higher amp draws. Did you data log the last run? What pinion were you running your 8s setup on 6s with Mr. Wizard?